Five Principles for Youth Development, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Youth development is a progression that trains young individuals to encounter the tasks of teenage years and maturity and attain their complete ability. Youth progress is encouraged over actions and practices that aid youth in developing cognitive, social, moral, expressive, and physical proficiencies. Self-awareness, learning, opportunities, goal setting, and financial literacy are essential principles for youth development because youths with strong self-awareness assistances ascertain to certify for errors, identify them, and then oversee and learn from those errors; education is vital in eliminating poverty and in encouraging supported, comprehensive and unbiassed economic growth and sustainable progress. Financial education clarifies to the youth how to save, plan financially, and make investments.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness skills are the basis for good intuition and decision-making. The skills involve recognizing sentiments and their paraphernalia, a robust logic of self-worth, and competencies. Emotional development amongst the youth is patent by a progressively collective capacity to perceive, evaluate and manage emotions (OPA, 2020). Emotional development processes are biological processes driven by cognitive and physical deviations, profoundly inclined by the situation and the individual’s setting. The dynamic development process enables adolescents and youth to construct and discover their unique qualities, skills and aids them to progress strengths for optimal health. The self-management process allows individuals to manage their own emotions (OPA, 2020). Youths can establish personal and positive objectives and acquire significant foresight into how their emotions can impact their aims and future life outcomes. Adolescents learn the approaches to recognize and describe solid and complex feelings to improve their ability to control emotions. Ageing from childhood to youth facilitates the development of the ability to profoundly grasp the significances of emotions and comprehend the impact of emotions (OPA, 2020). Recognizing the individual’s feelings helps them choose the approach to apply best to react to a circumstance.

Also, the youth learn on the progression to avert complications that result from solid emotions (Coe-Odess, Narr, & Allen, 2019). Hormones significantly influence adolescents’ temperaments and intensify their emotional responses. Moreover, the adolescent period affects youths’ performances through the rapid alterations in their school anticipations, peer associations, communal safety concerns, and family dynamics (Coe-Odess, Narr, & Allen, 2019). However, not all forms of stress are adverse to youth development (OPA, 2020). Positive stress experiences such as getting a first job can cause stress replies the enables youth to approach a task with more focus and alertness.

Self-awareness helps youth to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness facilitates youths to adventure their strengths and handles their fragilities. Moreover, youth development involves significant identity information (Muhammadjonovna, Makhmutovna,& Kurbonovich, 2020). Youths make inquiries concerning their values and passions; they examine their associations with peers and family and contemplate their definition of success and their talents. Through a youth’s identity information, they frequently experiment with diverse activities, associates, and ideas. The process of experimentation is reiterative (Muhammadjonovna, Makhmutovna,& Kurbonovich, 2020). An investigation is typical, and it offers youths chances to learn more concerning others and themselves; nevertheless, the progression is not always well-adjusted with cognitive abilities and the deliberation of their actions (Muhammadjonovna, Makhmutovna,& Kurbonovich, 2020). A high level of self-awareness among youth is significant as it facilitates their organization of social activities, including forming a system of knowledge, personal perceptions, skills, and the individual values of the planner’s progression of their educational processes.

Learning

Amongst the youth, learning beyond high school is significant in constructing a solid foundation for their future, including financial stability and work. There are economical, individual, and societal benefits to learning beyond secondary school. Leaning is necessary as youths who acquire education up to and beyond high school can understand how to use and exploit limited resources. Educated youths have a value for common prosperity, wellbeing, and sustainability (OECD, 2018). Educated youths are responsible for financial management and more; they have empowerment, collaboration, and sustainability beyond short-term benefits (OECD, 2018). In the circumstance of an augmented unpredictable, complex, uncertain, and ambiguous setting, the knowledge gained from higher education nurtures youths with the ability to embrace the challenges they are confronted with to make the best decisions. Active participation of youths in education translates enables students to apply their acquaintances in unknown and developing circumstances. Students acquire a broad range of skills, including metacognitive and cognitive skills that facilitate creative and critical thinking in addition to self-regulation and learning skills (OECD, 2018). Also, students are equipped with emotional and social, physical, and practical skills. Education enables students to play a positive role in life, and youths necessitate navigating via doubt transversely an extensive diversity of current and past circumstances in time, societal gap, and the contemporary world (OECD, 2018). Students acquire skills to engage with the physical world and appreciate the fragility of their environments, their complexity, and the value of their resources. Through transformative proficiencies in education, the youth develop knowledge to become responsible, aware, and innovative.

Creating value is crucial as it facilitates growth urgently required to accomplish inclusive, more substantial, and more sustainable development (OECD, 2018). innovation facilities significance solutions at affordable costs in concern to the economic, cultural, and social predicaments.  Innovative youths sustain economies that are extra productive, robust, modifiable, and financially capable of supporting higher living standards. Taking responsibility is also evident amongst youths who have acquired higher education through secondary and college teaching (OECD, 2018). They can deal with changes, diversity, ambiguity, and novelty to think and work individually. More also, through secondary education, the youth have the sense of accountability, intellectual maturity, and moral traits to evaluate and reflect on the actions of their experiences and personal objectives.

Opportunity

Experiences and opportunities are significant aspects of youth development. Various programs provide youth with transitions, an essential progressive phase that enables them to evolve physically, emotionally, rapidly, and socially (Youth Power, 2021). Skill-building opportunities facilitate youths to progress life skills through curricular activities, career exposures, and internships. Experiences from the community, such as sports and arts, create extra-curricular opportunities that enhance youth development (Youth Power, 2021). skill-building is significant to train youth in life and easy-going skills. Additionally, skill-building provides the youth with the prospects that empower them to be familiar with their control and capability.

Opportunities for bonding and healthy relationships provide the youth with the options for positive peer and adult relationships (Youth Power, 2021). Sturdy relationships facilitate funding youth workers’ educational programs, including the various professions in teaching, legal advisors, and health workers. Experiences and opportunities allow youth to evaluate and contemplate positive adult role models, coaches, instructors, community leaders, and mentors (Youth Power, 2021). Healthy peer associations are essential to youth development.

Membership and belonging experiences and activities are significant as they facilitate the identification of the youth that sensate being sidelined and aid them in association with prospects for communal relations (Youth Power, 2021). Moreover, belonging and membership experiences help youth construct assistance in a social attachment such as cross-cultural services, communication, tolerance, and esteem for multiplicity. Experiences train youth on the best approaches to express their sentiments (Youth Power, 2021). Youths and their peers are provided with the occasions for social contact and the formulation of edifices that substitute optimistic peer interactions. Belonging and membership opportunities give the youth activities that facilitate building a sense of community amongst peer assemblages through progressions and activities such as games, common activities and goals, and sports.

Through opportunities of youth contributions and engagements, it permits participation in various activities through diverse approaches (Youth Power, 2021). This comprises their participation in communal services, the creation of various chances for minority decision-making at several administrative echelons, youth expression, and the programs that provide structures for youth involvement. Youth engagement and contribution proposals are the chances for them to partake in shared and independent verdict occasioning (Youth Power, 2021).  Youth contribution and engagement are also essential to support their contribution and volunteer at schools and homes. It fosters youth governed initiatives and provides chances for additional opportunities for youth leadership.

The opportunities for safe environments create safe settings tailored to the necessities of youths with physical, emotional, and infrastructural safeties. Communities are obligated to provide youth with a safe environment to engage, practice and learn creatively and collaborate (Youth Power, 2021). Emotional space is essential to critical thinking progression in learning. Safe spaces ensure youths of all genders feel comfortable expressing themselves.  Positive perceptions, norms and expectations offer youth the prospects to set outlooks for themselves. Also, they can reflect on their contributions, skills, and strengths.

Goal Setting and Achievement

Goal setting and the progression of achieving objectives are practical skills for youth development. Having goals in life and achieving them is essential to individual growth and success for youths in their endeavors (Barry, Clarke, & Dowling, 2017). Setting lie goals amongst youth is vital as most individuals experience difficulties getting started on their paths to attain success. Goal setting is significant as it aids the youth in separating their weaknesses and strengths and develop realistic plans for refining their lives. Goal setting delivers context and focuses abilities to youths (Barry, Clarke, & Dowling, 2017). Through the progression of goal setting, most youths can develop contracts for their associations, outline social, academic, and personal goals and short and long-term objectives. Moreover, goal setting is significant as it enables the youth to assess their progress in achieving their goals significantly.

Financial literacy

Literacy concerning work and management of finances helps the youth acquire enhanced management of their money and occupations. Youths necessitate learning about money management skills before they can commence earning and managing their finances (Kasman, Heuberger & Hammond, 2018). Financial education is significant for the youth to help them avert getting into financial cons. Most of the financially illiterate youths are predisposed to falling into financial snares (NFEC, 2020). Also, bad decisions concerning personal finances can take long periods to be fixed (NFEC, 2020). Youths are required to get quality financial education on the methods to manage their finances before they even need financial management skills; hence, they will be prepared when the time they require the skills comes (NFEC, 2020). Henceforth, financially literate youths position a far superior possibility of leading an extended life of financial security. Economic instruction is significant for the youth as it provides an influential head start in life.

Conclusion

Youth development programs are persuaded to avert adolescents from partaking in health-compromising conduct to shape their competencies and skills. The objectives of youth development programs are to endorse positive progress as much as the agendas seek to counteract problematic deeds. Youth development is a significant aspect that helps individuals circumnavigate adolescence in beneficial approaches and prepare them for their future over fostering optimistic development. The development of youths is through growing their acquaintance to supportive and empowering surroundings where events create multiple prospects for various skill-building and horizon-broadening involvements.

References

Barry, M. M., Clarke, A. M., & Dowling, K. (2017). Promoting social and emotional wellbeing in schools. Health Education. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Margaret-Barry-2/publication/317834703_Promoting_social_and_emotional_well-being_in_schools/links/59f99dc4458515547c26c9ab/Promoting-social-and-emotional-well-being-in-schools.pdf

Coe-Odess, S. J., Narr, R. K., & Allen, J. P. (2019). Emergent emotions in adolescence. In Handbook of emotional development (pp. 595-625). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-17332-6_23

Kasman, M., Heuberger, B., & Hammond, R. A. (2018). A review of large-scale youth financial literacy education policies and programs. The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ES_20181001_Financial-Literacy-Review.pdf

Muhammadjonovna, U. N., Makhmutovna, T. H., & Kurbonovich, M. U. (2020). Improving the Mechanism of Increasing the Social Activity of Young People in the Development of a Democratic and Legal Society. Jcr, 7(12), 3133-3139. http://www.jcreview.com/fulltext/197-1598863619.pdf

National Financial Educators Council (NFEC). (2020). Why is Financial Education Important for Youth? https://www.financialeducatorscouncil.org/why-is-financial-education-important-for-youth/

OECD. 2018. The future of education and skills. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf

OPA. 2020. Adolescent Development Explained. https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/opa-adolescent-development-explained-download.pdf

Youth Power. (2021). Examples of Positive Youth Development Program Activities Aligned with PYD Features, Mapped to a Socio-Ecological Model. https://www.youthpower.org/sites/default/files/YouthPower/files/resources/PYD%20Features%20Matrix%20FINAL.pdf